Giving Through a Charitable Lead Trust
With a charitable lead trust, you can make gifts to Love for the Least using funds that will be returned to you or your loved ones in the future and enjoy significant tax savings.
The benefits of a charitable lead trust:
- You arrange for a regular source of charitable gifts that will begin immediately and continue for as long as you decide.
- The amount of the charitable gifts can be fixed or vary over time.
- You or your advisors can continue to manage the funds in the trust, if desired.
- Such a gift can serve to reduce or eliminate income, estate and gift taxes now—and in future years as well.
- You may be able to provide younger heirs with a larger inheritance than would otherwise be possible at a time when it is more appropriate that it be received.
With a charitable lead trust, Love for the Least immediately begins to receive gifts in the form of payments from the trust, and the gifts continue for the period of time you determine. At the end of that time, assets remaining in the trust are returned to you or other loved ones.
Gift and estate taxes can be due on amounts over a certain amount given to others during your lifetime or through your estate. Because of the front-end gifts to charity over time from a charitable lead trust, however, you are allowed to reduce the amounts that would otherwise be taxable by the value of those charitable gifts.
Depending on the amount of the payments, how long they last and other factors, it can be possible to greatly reduce, or even entirely eliminate, gift and estate tax on unlimited amounts ultimately passing to heirs. In addition, at the termination of the trust, your heirs can benefit from any growth in trust assets, free of additional gift and estate taxes, during the time the trust is in existence.
Planning Tip: Charitable lead trusts are especially attractive during times when interest rates are low and when assets used to fund them are expected to grow over time.
